The End - August 20, 2006

We left Xi'an early on Sunday, August 20 and arrived home that same afternoon. There are always a lot of ceremonies and important people to meet when you sponsor a trip to China. UL - one of the leaders we work with in connection with Mama Jo's House. UR - This father represented the parents of the children we treated in Xi'an. They made two beautiful banners telling of their gratitude. On a banner much larger than the one pictured, they listed all the children we treated. LL - this husband and wife team lead a large (over 1,000 member) congregation of baptized believers near the city of Xi'an. As you can see our meeting place was not a church building. LR - The leader of the Xi'an Charity. He was the man who sanctioned BandS being there and the one who welcomed and told us good by. We were treated with hospitality and dignity and were assured that we would be welcomed back any time.

Winding Down in China - August 16, 1006

UL - Sometimes babies just need to be held. UR - New Experience - Andrea and I were interviewed for about an hour by a Chinese Talk Show Hostess. LL - New friend, English teacher Anne. LR - Being entertained in a Chinese home. The hostess was trying to teach me to make dumplings. 

Birthday!

Hey there! just wanted to post some pictures of my party. and i will work to get some pictures of me driving my wonderful car when i get my license next week! hope everyone is doing good. i miss you. meaning of course my midland family and my big sister. i love you! and sorry my pictures are so messed up i can't get the computer to put them where i want them to go so i got frustrated and gave up!

Caitlin Deserves A Solo Portrait

OK Caitlin. You deserve a picture without any siblings, parents, grandparents, cousins etc. Here you are getting ready to celebrate with your friends. Hope you have a great party and no one gets hurt.
Love,
Papa 

Caitlin's Birthday - 16th

Dear Caitlin,
Happy Birthday. I don't have a real good picture of you in my files, so you have to let Jordy share this space with you. Since you tower over her now I didn't think that it would matter to you. Since you are now 16 and can drive, you must pick up the job of Jordan and drop by and see Rose and Papa on a regular basis. I am missing Jordan a lot, so you have to do double duty while she is in College.

You have brought so much joy into our lives and we know that this next year will be no exception. You are beautiful, good and very smart. Don't forget which of those three is most important.

We love you a lot.

Papa & Rose 

Surrounded by Beautiful People - August 14, 2006

In making reports from medical missions I sometimes forget to tell you that I am always surrounded by beautiful people. All these ladies worked very hard in making our mission a success. The nurse in the UL photo is the heard nurse for the dental hospital. UR was a posed picture taken just before Margaret Ball and Lisa Clifton left for home. The beauty in the black dress was my assistant, Karon. She was very eager to see that all of our patients were made comfortable. LL is a photo of Rose, out interpretor. She was so very helpful and did a great job. LR is a friend from my first trip to China. Tracy is a translator but she worked with the nurses in the recovery room on this trip.

My gratitude is extended to each of these ladies. 

Many Challenges - August 14, 2006

Clef lips and palates are not the only challenges presented. There was nothing we could do for the child with no external ear. We were fortunate to have a ENT specialist on our team and after an MRI he determined that this surgery could not be done under the present circumstances.

The little girl in the lower right picture was left at the gate of Mama Jo's House, an orphanage provided by Caris Foundation and maitained by Agape China. This picture was taken the same morning she arrived and we had not yet found a way to evaluate her to see if we can help.

I needed to visit this orphanage, but I needed to be at the hospital as much as possibe. It was a 12 hour train and taxi ride from Xi'an to Biyang so I took the evening train, arrived at Mama Jo's House about 10 a.m. I met with the government officials and the people at the home and took the night train back to Xi'an. That way I only missed one day at the hospital. 

Early Present - August 11, 2006

This frantic lady is not the mother of this child. She found the baby outside the hospital where we were working and rushed it to us. She was very upset because she immediately loved the baby and wanted to claim it for her own, but she did not have the resources to pay for the necessary surgery. I was a little emotional with this one, but I knew BandS had the means to not only pay for the surgery but to place the baby in a good hospital where we could expect good results.

Andrea immediately stepped in and accepted the baby and without saying a word this woman understood, conveyed the message that all would be well.

We made arrangements for this babies care and surgery is planned for August 25. Thanks to all who have provided funds for this work.

China - August 2, 2006

Seven ladies and one old man, met in Beijing AP and toured the Beijing area for three days. Four student nurses from the University 0f Regian, Saskatchewan, two from Legacy Church and one from Austin, TX.
These ladies needed some rest time to get ready for the 12 to 16 hour days they will be working at the Central Hospital in Xi'an beginning August 6.

Only two of our group climbed far enough to earn a shirt saying they were able to do this.

Part of our tour took us on a rick shaw ride through an old part of Beijing and allowed us to visit in a home that has been in the family for hundreds of years.


 

College Life

I love Harding. I'm already busy beyond belief with class work, meetings, and Social Club processes. Everything's crazy right now, but everyone is superbly nice here and God-centered, so I'm really enjoying that new aspect of school. Keep me updated with what's up in the family so that I don't feel like a foreign citizen cut off from everyone. Lots of love to everyone, and an open invitation (to females) to come stay with me. I have an air mattress. They're very strict about not allowing males, which I'm sure makes everyone happy. The food is even better than expected, but maybe they're easing us in. I'm meeting tons of people and some of them I've really seemed to click with. The honeymoon period of my freshman year is brilliant so far, and I'd love to receive mail...Hope to hear from you soon! Sorry this is so short but I have to fit in dinner before more study time.

Jordan

First Day of School, Bailey's Senior Year!!!

Philippines - July 2006

When the mud slide buried 3000 people near St. Bernard on the island of Leyte, it left a number of high school students as orphans. Their school was about a mile away from the village and they survived. Sunrise Christian College offered 12 girls scholarships. The only problem was they did not have a dorm to house them. BandS was able to contribute enough funds to build this dorm and to dig a well for the water supply. I went to take part in the opening ceremonies. I had a great time with the staff and the orphans. The girls prepared the meal and the dormitory for the opening ceremony. The local TV and paper covered the event and it was given prime time on the evening news. I think it was very good publicity for our work and the work of Sunrise Christian College.







I was also able to visit Tagaytay and enjoy the fellowship of the church there. Many of you remember that we asked for prayers for Lyn, pictured here. She has had thyroid surgery and is making very good progress in her recovery. Thanks for you help and for your concern.

Indonesia - July 2006 - Clef Lips

One reason for going to Indonesia, was to participate in doing 20 clef lip surgeries. BandS is in partnership with Hoesni Karim, a business man in Medan. He is a good friend who is very generous in caring for those who need help. He has several projects that include lip surgeries, dialysis center and cataract surgery clinics.
We agreed to do 20 surgeries this year and were fortunate to get started on them while I was there.








































You can see the first two photos are before and immediately after surgery. These children did not receive any premedication. They just came to the operating room and we used local anesthesia. I have never seen children so cooperative during what must have been a frightening experience. We only did three surgeries the first afternoon.

The plastic surgeon we hired in Medan, Dr. Nazar, has agreed to do unilateral lips for $250, bi-lateral lips for $500 and clef palates for $500.


Pictured here is one of the more difficult cases that will be completed in the near future.











This little girl was too congested for us to operate on. She requires a general anesthetic for this procedure, and will hopefully be ready for surgery next week.

Thanks for all your help and interest in this ministry.

Indonesia - July 2006 - Cataract Surgeries

I left home July 7, 2006 for a mission to Indonesia and the Philipppines. My main purpose in going to Indonesia was to see about the cataract surgeries BandS Ministries partners with other NPO's in doing. The flight to Medan was very comfortable thanks to free on miles given by Larry and Gaylene Drader, of Calgary, Alberta, (Gaylene is my niece).

The roads on the Island of Nias are still in a state of disrepair. Almost every bridge and culvert on the island was destroyed during the tsunomi and earth quake last year.

The roads make it both dangerous and difficult to transport patients to Lukas Hospital for their eye surgeries. Even with these problems, there were 101 eye surgeries completed during the second week of July.

The weather also interfered with our travels. Our flight from Medan to Sitoli was cancelled twice and we arrived a day late. Getting off the island was also difficult. I bought tickets on two different airlines so I could be sure of getting a seat. I took the first flight out.

I found out that the bugs on Nias have been in training. They now attack me without a sound. I thought of trying to negotiate with them and offer my blood in a small basin so they could get their fill with out puncturing my warm and tender body. Think of the wear and tear it would save on their little sticker/sipper.

We will do surgery in a few hours. One interesting fact about this trip is that many of the patients came from remote villages. One small village sent 40 patients. It is only 17 miles from their village to the hospital but it takes 6 hours to make the trip.

We sent 4 small trucks with benches in the back for them to travel in. Of course, more than 40 people came. Each patient was allowed to bring one person with them, but the count seemed to get mixed up.

I have not been in one place for a month this summer, but I have not been home any either. Rose and Papa both "encouraged" me to blog, and this is my contribution. I started the summer by registering at Harding, and have 15 hours next semester which were difficult to procure because of my AP credits and planned semester in Europe. Then I headed to church camp as a camper for my last year of Zenith at OC. It was wonderful. I had one night in my bed before flying to Nicaragua with Papa. A learning experience and a testament to how much I appreciate mission experiences. Then I was home for a few days to shop for my dorm, train for Royal Family and head to Cornerstone, a middle school camp, as a counselor. 14 middle school girls. It was like reliving the worst years of my life, but I was viewed as old and supposed to have all the answers. Actually it was awesome and my group grew tremendously. God has worked powerfully in everything He has allowed me to do this summer, and I am blessed to have so many opportunities. I leave for Houston on Monday and then Royal Family Kids' Camp for foster children is the next week. It amazes me how much energy I still have...lots of love to everyone, and I hope your summers are as wonderful (I know they are as full) as mine has been thus far.

Arrived Safely in Indonesia

I had a good trip to Medan, Indonesia. The first leg of the trip was to SF and I had plenty to read, so the time passed quickly. The longest leg was from SF to Tokyo. I was able to sleep about 4 hours of the 11 it took to fly. It was day light and we went from Wednesday morning to Thursday night without any darkness.
From Tokyo to Singapore is about 6 hours and the arrival time was 11.30 p. There is a very nice hotel in the international arrival area and I had a room reserved. They have made improvements since I last stayed there and it is atlest a **** hotel now.

The trip from Singapore to Medan is just a little over an hour, and they try to feed us breakfast. It was not a breakfast I wanted to eat.

One of the usual things that happens is that the baggage crew holds back a few bags and about the time you get the form for lost baggage filled out they suddenly find them. In the great rejoicing hour they ask if you would like to give them a little something for finding your bag. I fell for this the first time, but this time I told them I knew what was going on. The custom inspector was a part of the plan and did seem a little embarassed when I called their hand.
I took several out to dinner last night as we made arrangements to do 20 cleft lip repairs here in Medan. We negotiated a price and we will do the first ones on Wednesday, the day I fly to Singapore on my way to Manila.

I am out of time.
Love to all,
Papa

Medical Mission - El Cua, Nicaragua

Dr. Cody Mihills, Jordan and I along with about 40 other workers traveled to El Cua Nicaragua to conduct a medical mission. This trip was lead by Malena Rampy of Olive Branch Ministries.

The working and living conditions were very primative, but the volume of patients was great. I know Cody saw over 150 patients in one day, and we averaged about 60 extractions each day.

The hotel had no running water, just a tank and a bucket to use for showering. The toilets did not flush and the electricity was off about as much as it was on.

The food was good and we had plenty to eat.

Our daily routine began with alarms going off at 5 a.m. Needles to say, with cold water and a bucket, it didn't take long to shower.

The morning devotionals began at 6 a.m. Breakfast was at 6.30 and clinic opened as soon as possible there after.

Jordan and I were assisted by a Spanish speaking young man from Germany. Sabastian was a good worker, good translator and we couldn't have done well without him.



Our trip out from El Cua was interesting. We came very close to having a head on with another bus. Then we transfered to smaller vans and had the experience of a broken cable on the transmission and a flat tire, causing us to arrive 3 hours late for our luncheon appointment.

After lunch we went to a shopping area and enjoyed the bargaining and shopping that is traditional in Central America.

Jordan was a great worker, shopper and travelling companion. The picture is of us at the farewell banquet provided by one of the local congregations.




This was Dr. Cody's second trip with Olive Branch and I think it won't be his last. He has a caring heart and the patients were very blessed and appreciative.

You can see some of the beauty of Nicargua in this final picture.

I hope Jordan will blog her impressions of the trip. I leave in about 10 hours for Indonesia and the Philippines, and I have not finished packing. Pray for me.

John (Papa)

Brown Family Summer...so far

Okay bloggers...things are a bit slow on the Bailey Family blog so I thought I would fill you in on the West Texas members. First of all I have done very little to report on but everyone else is quite busy. Tod has been preaching this month while Ronnie is on vacation. We just hired a new small groups minister so that will help with Tod's load a bit. He just returned from YouthWave Austin today and once again it was an amazing week. Bailey has been in Abilene for almost three weeks now. She is loving it and has made a great group of friends. She is taking two classes and doing great in both so far. She feels like MCS has prepared her well compared to the other Junior Scholars and she even had the highest first test grade in her psychology class...she is finding it very interesting to be in class with people in their 20's. She will be finished July 5th and I think she will be ready to see her friends and maybe her family too! Bailey and Hutton will be going to YouthWave Pepperdine in July and Bailey will go to cheerleading camp at Texas Tech too. Hutton has really been just in and out of Midland so far. He went on the youth group mission trip to Mexico and after being home a few days headed to Colorado to fish with a group of friends and a couple of dads. He is playing summer league basketball when he can and the football coaches mentioned they hadn't seen him much this summer but I explained that I hadn't either. He is now on a houseboat trip on Lake Travis with the McGraws. We are going to head to Dallas this Friday to see Les Mis...one of his birthday presents. On July 2nd he will leave to be a counselor at Op Camp for the first time. After YouthWave he will settle in and get ready for 2 a days. Connor went on a 2 and a half week trip with Tod's parents to the Northeast and had a ball. He did everything from a Yankees game to Amish country and loved it all. He will be going to McAllen for a 7th grade mission trip, to Panama with his friend Tanner and Tanner's dad for another mission and then to church camp with me and Reagan. He is also trying to work out for football when in town and playing summer league basketball...he had 6 points last night. Now for Reagan...I am basically trying to keep him busy and not too bored. We are spending a lot of quality mom and Reagan time together. He did tennis camp this week and charmed all the coaches...especially the college girls. They all think he has great potential and he won his first match against an older boy...I told his coach we didn't need another sport but we were enjoying camp...I'm sure everyone is busy but we need news. I will try and get Bailey to blog soon. Have a safe and fun July!

Family Vacation - Providence Point

We attempt to get the entire family together for a few days
vacation once a year. We haven't always been successful
but we were this year.
All the children with their spouses, and the grandchildren
gathered at Providence Point on Lake Brownwood, May 29
- June 1.
Providence Point is the beautiful lake place owned by
Dale and Rita Brown (Tod's parents). They are just about
the most generous folks I know, and they allowed us full
run of their perfect spot for a family vacation.
If it can be driven or ridden in the water, they have one or
more of them to play with, and believe me, we used them
all. The fishing was great and there were times in the early
morning or late evening when the dock was not so heavily
populated that you could get a hook in the water.
Tod and Lee Ann arranged for the food and did most of the
cooking. The only dish missing was Tod's famous "steak on
a bed of sausage." However, he substituted with the best
beef and chicken fajitas that I have ever had.
Unfortunately, I failed to take very many pictures and some
of the most important people are not included. However,
if you read some of the old posts you will see recent photos
of all of the family.

Stephanie and Rainey catching some rays.




















Connor & Reagan in beteen fights




















King of The Hill (Tubes) "King Hutton"




















It was Lee Ann's turn to hold Emily Rose

Congratulations Jordan Elizabeth Bailey

Jordan Elizabeth Bailey graduated Summa Cum Laude from
Birdville High School, May 28, 2006. She was ranked 4th in a class
of 424. Besides all the accolades she has attained along the way in
both academics and theatre, she now is listed as a Texas Scholar,
named to the National Honor Society and has received the
Chancellor's Award and Freshman English Major Scholarship
from Harding University. We are very proud of you Jordan. You have
always been an over achiever and we don't think this is the time to stop.

In your 18 years of life you have never disappointed me. We are
thankful that you have chosen a Christian University as the place
to further your education and we are thankful there are institution
of higher learning with academic standards that will challenge the
best students they enroll.


Jordan with her big/little sister Caitlin




















The Cousins - Except Emily Rose
Back Row - Bailey Brown, Jordan Bailey, Hutton Brown, Caitlin Bailey
Front Row - Rainey Bailey, Connor Brown, Reagan Brown





















Jordan Bailey with Emily Rose Bailey.
(The oldest and the youngest of our grandchildren). If I live to
see Emily Rose graduate I will be 89 years old. I'm going to start
getting in shape just as soon as we finish all the left overs.